The 40 best things to watch on Netflix UK

Video-streaming service Netflix gives you a vast number of films, TV shows and documentaries to choose from – and that can be a problem.

More often than not, you find yourself spending your entire evening shuffling through the selection trying to pick something to watch – before realising that you no longer have time to actually watch a film.

Never fear; we've rifled through the Netflix catalogue to bring you our top picks, from chucklesome comedies to action-packed adventures. Let Stuff be your guide on your cinematic odyssey.

MORE NETFLIX ARTICLES

If you're after the best new stuff on Netflix we've also got you covered with our New on Netflix UK feature, and if you want to get a bit more specific, try these:

PART 1: NETFLIX ORIGINALS

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

A riotous comedy-drama-thriller loosely based on Hitch-Hikers' Guide... author Douglas Adams' novels, Dirk Gently's... is like nothing else on TV. In fact it's like nothing else in the world - and is all the better for it.

The plot is way too convoluted to go into here, but that's actually the point: as a 'holistic' detective, Dirk Gently simply investigates crimes he happens across randomly and follows the most obscure and seemingly unconnected of leads as he does so. What transpires is a gloriously muddled mess of offbeat diversions, Technicolor characters and bizarre events taking in psychic powers, cats, dogs, homicidal angels, torture, some really lovely leather jackets and Elijah Wood.

Best mainlined in a few lengthy sittings - it's too confusing, and too good, to watch piecemeal.

Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon is a cyberpunk neo noir journey 300-odd years into the future, where the planet is an overpopulated, dirty, decadent, neon-lit Bladerunner-esque mess – but outright death is a rarity.

That’s because everybody has their consciousness digitally backed up in a “stack”, a tiny disc-shaped computer stored where the skull meets the spine. Flattened by a lorry? No biggie: the paramedics can prise out your stack and – provided it hasn’t been smashed – put it in safe storage until a new body (or “sleeve” in the show’s vernacular) is available. If this sounds like a utopia, be warned: rampant capitalism has ensured that only the wealthy can afford good quality sleeves, with others being kept in storage for decades or transferred into the first available body, regardless of its suitability.

Into this grave new world comes Takeshi Kovacs, released from prison and dropped into a new sleeve after a couple of centuries on ice. Why has Kovacs been brought back from the dead after so long? In order to solve a murder, of course – a mystery that the insanely wealthy victim (who’s now reincarnated in a new cloned sleeve, natch) believes only Kovacs’ unique skills can get to the bottom of.

Godless

This seven-part Netflix miniseries is a dark, character-driven Western set in La Belle, a small New Mexico town inhabited almost entirely by women – the majority of the male population having perished in a mining disaster.

The real pull of this story comes from the sense of impending doom as a merciless outlaw band (led by a magnificent, malignant and, this being a modern day TV show, complicated and conflicted, Jeff Daniels) homes in on a defector seeking shelter in La Belle.

Can the town’s ailing sheriff and its other odd assortment of characters do anything to stop the incoming carnage? Godless is a fantastic tension builder, and its colourful cast, snappy script and impeccable production values will please fans of similar series like Westworld, Deadwood and Lonesome Dove.

Stranger Things

Only 80s kids will understand this. Actually that’s not true at all, but Stranger Things is a love letter to many of the movies, TV shows and books that children who grew up in that decade will cherish: it’s replete with references to E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goonies, Stephen King, Dungeons & Dragons and Poltergeist, and the mood and feel is sure to dredge up nostalgia aplenty.

Take away the retro vibes though, and the show can still stand on its own as a decent sci-fi drama-thriller. And it doesn’t mess about too much – unlike a lot of Netflix Original Series, its episodes are reasonably tight (around 40 minutes each), and there are only eight of them in the entire fantastic first season, and nine in the (almost as enjoyable) second.

The End of the F***ing World

If you prefer your quirky comedy-drama to remain firmly planted on the bleak, dark and murderous side of the fence, this one-season Brit series made by Netflix and Channel 4 deserves to sit high up on your shortlist.

When two disaffected teenagers embark on an impromptu road trip, things quickly take a chaotic Bonnie and Clyde-style turn – and little wonder, given that one of them, believing himself to be a psychopath, plans on killing the other as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

With episodes running just 20 minutes in length, it’s stupidly easy to find yourself drawn into the pair’s little adventure and binge on this show – but just make sure you don’t miss out on the superior direction, camerawork and production design when your blitz through it in a weekend – because this is as well-made as it is engrossing.

Making a Murderer

While the filming of this 10-part documentary clearly started a long, long time ago (it's been 10 years in development), one suspects that the success of the Serial podcast is what got Netflix to buy and promote it as much as it has.

The comparisons are almost too easy and obvious, but there are differences and - more importantly - Making a Murderer stands up on its own. Steven Avery served 18 years in prison for a horrible crime that he didn't commit, and the revelations about the police handling of that case could be a 10-part series of their own, but here that's just the start. You see, just two years after his exoneration, he's charged with a new crime: the brutal murder of a young woman. Given the circumstances of the previous case, the local Sheriff's involvement is under serious scrutiny, and to say there are suspicious inconsistencies is a massive understatement.

It's a long, often slow series, but it's also fascinating, deeply troubling, and will send shivers down your spine.

Narcos

The most critically acclaimed Netflix original series of 2015 (now two seasons strong) tells the bloody story of Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and the man tasked with taking him down. Sounds like a laugh riot, right?

While Narcos lacks much in the way of light-relief, watching American DEA agent Steve Murphy submerge himself in a viciously amoral cesspit is a constant thrill. What could well be a high-minded exercise in true crime melodrama is elevated to nerve-shredding nirvana via some classy performances and the disturbing use of archive footage. Escobar’s brutal legacy lives on through your telebox, and the horror of it all will make you wince in anguish.

Black Mirror

Black Mirror has made the move from Channel 4 to Netflix in sumptuous, unsettling style.

Not only has the platform given Charlie Brooker and his team the freedom to tell more stories (the two Netflix-made series have six episodes rather than the usual three) and let each one run without ad breaks for as long as it needs to, it's also given them a budget big enough to expand the scale, scope and special effects.

The feature-length final episode, Hated in the Nation, is a perfect case in point. What hasn't changed is the overall theme. Each episode may tell a standalone story, but they're all connected by the threads of modern humanity's relationship with technology, the internet and social media.

Make no mistake, this is unnerving stuff, enhanced by the fact that the stories are generally set in a very near future that's all too recognisable. But fear not, the trademark blacker-than-black humour has also been retained, so you'll guffaw almost as much as you'll squirm. This is must-see television for anyone who's obsessed with tech. Watch Black Mirror on Netflix